Potential roles and targeted therapy of the CXCLs/CXCR2 axis in cancer and inflammatory diseases

The chemokine receptor CXCR2 and its ligands are implicated in the progression of tumours and various inflammatory diseases. Activation of the CXCLs/CXCR2 axis activates multiple signalling pathways, including the PI3K, p38/ERK, and JAK pathways, and regulates cell survival and migration. The CXCLs/CXCR2 axis plays a vital role in the tumour microenvironment and in recruiting neutrophils to inflammatory sites. Extensive infiltration of neutrophils during chronic inflammation is one of the most important pathogenic factors in various inflammatory diseases. Chronic inflammation is considered to be closely correlated with initiation of cancer. In addition, immunosuppressive effects of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) against T cells attenuate the anti-tumour effects of T cells and promote tumour invasion and metastasis. Over the last several decades, many therapeutic strategies targeting CXCR2 have shown promising results and entered clinical trials. In this review, we focus on the features and functions of the CXCLs/CXCR2 axis and highlight its role in cancer and inflammatory diseases. We also discuss its potential use in targeted therapies.     

Gustatory thresholds for food-associated sugars in the spider monkey (Ateles geoffroyi)

The purpose of this study was to determine gustatory thresholds for five different food-associated sugars in Ateles geoffroyi. Using a two-bottle test, three adult spider monkeys were found to significantly prefer concentrations as low as 3 mM sucrose, 15 mM fructose, 20 mM glucose, and 10 mM lactose over tap water. Maltose was significantly discriminated down to 20 mM with individual animals showing either a preference or an aversion, or an inverted U-shaped function of preference toward higher concentrations of this carbohydrate. The results showed the spider monkey to respond to lower sugar concentrations compared to other nonhuman primates tested so far and thus support the assumptions that Ateles geoffroyi may use sweetness as a criterion for food selection, and that the remarkably high sweet-taste sensitivity of this frugivorous species might be correlated with its dietary specialization. © 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Microsatellite analyses of the trout of northwest Mexico)

The trout of northwest Mexico represent an undescribed group of fish considered part of the Oncorhynchus mykiss (Pacific trout) complex of species and subspecies. Recent genetic studies have shown these fish to have important genetic diversity and a unique evolutionary history when compared to coastal rainbow trout. Increased levels of allelic diversity have been found in this species at the southern extent of its range. In this study we describe the trout in the Sierra Madre Occidental from the rios Yaqui, Mayo, Casas Grandes and de Bavispe, and their relationship to the more southern distribution of Mexican golden trout (O. chrysogaster) using 11 microsatellite loci. Microsatellite allelic diversity in Mexican trout was high with a mean of 6.6 alleles/locus, average heterozygosity=0.35, and a mean F _st=0.43 for all loci combined. Microsatellite data were congruent with previously published mtDNA results showing unique panmictic population structure in the Rio Yaqui trout that differs from Pacific coastal trout and Mexican golden trout. These data also add support for the theory of headwaters transfer of trout across the Continental Divide from tributaries of the Rio de Bavispe into the Rio Casas Grandes. Rio Mayo trout share a close genetic relationship to trout in Rio Yaqui, but sample sizes from the Rio Mayo prevent significant comparisons in this study. Microsatellite analyses show significant allelic frequency differences between Rio Yaqui trout and O. chrysogaster in Sinaloa and Durango Mexico, adding further support for a unique evolutionary status for this group of northwestern Mexican trout.     

雄性猕猴血清中促黄体素的分泌水平

本文采用促黄体素（ＬＨ）体外生物测定法，对不同年龄组雄性猴血清中促黄体素分泌水平进行了分析。结果表明：幼年组为５．４±１．７ｎｇ／ｍｌ，成年组为４５．６±１２．８ｎｇ／ｍｌ，老年组为６９．２±２１．５ｎｇ／ｍｌ。提示雄性猕猴ＬＨ分泌模式与人很相似。     

Diet, foraging, and use of space in wild golden-headed lion tamarins

Lion tamarins (Callitrichidae: Leontopithecus) are small frugi-faunivores that defend large home ranges. We describe results from the first long-term investigation of wild golden-headed lion tamarins (L. chrysomelas; GHLTs). We present data about activity budgets, daily activity cycles, diet, daily path length, home range size, home range overlap, and territorial encounters for three groups of GHLTs that were studied for 1.5-2.5 years in Una Biological Reserve, Bahia State, Brazil, an area characterized by aseasonal rainfall. We compare our results to those from other studies of lion tamarins to identify factors that may influence foraging and ranging patterns in this genus. Ripe fruit, nectar, insects, and small vertebrates were the primary components of the GHLT diet, and gums were rarely eaten. Fruit comprised the majority of plant feeding bouts, and the GHLTs ate at least 79 different species of plants from 32 families. The most common foraging sites for animal prey were epiphytic bromeliads. The GHLTs defended large home ranges averaging 123 ha, but showed strong affinities for core areas, spending 50% of their time in approximately 11% of their home range. Encounters with neighboring groups averaged two encounters every 9 days, and they were always aggressive. Data about time budgets and daily activity cycles reveal that the GHLTs spent most of their time foraging for resources or traveling between foraging sites distributed throughout their home ranges. The GHLTs spent much less time consuming exudates compared to lion tamarins in more seasonal environments. Additionally, the GHLTs had much larger home ranges than golden lion tamarins (L. rosalia), and did not engage in territorial encounters as frequently as L. rosalia. GHLT ranging patterns appear to be strongly influenced by resource acquisition and, to a lesser extent, by resource defense.     

Molecular cloning of protamine-2 and expression with aging in Japanese monkey (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Macaca fuscata</Emphasis>)

In order to isolate genes relating spermatogenesis with postnatal development and aging, we have attempted to obtain genes showing differences in expression in testis of Japanese monkeys (Macaca fuscata) by means of differential display PCR, and we have cloned, sequenced and characterized protamine-2 (PRM2) of Japanese monkey. The predicted open reading frame encoded a protein of 103 amino acid residues, most of which are common to those of other mammals. Northern analysis revealed that the PRM2 gene is expressed at adult and aged stages, but not at the juvenile stage. In situ hybridization revealed that the PRM2 gene is expressed mainly in late spermatids and its expressional potential is decreased from adult to aged stages. It suggests that PRM2 in spermiogenesis is mediated by the age of the animal.     

Influences of limb proportions and body size on locomotor kinematics in terrestrial primates and fossil hominins

During locomotion, mammalian limb postures are influenced by many factors including the animal's limb length and body mass. Polk (2002) compared the gait of similar-sized cercopithecine monkeys that differed limb proportions and found that longer-limbed monkeys usually adopt more extended joint postures than shorter-limbed monkeys in order to moderate their joint moments. Studies of primates as well as non-primate mammals that vary in body mass have demonstrated that larger animals use more extended limb postures than smaller animals. Such extended postures in larger animals increase the extensor muscle mechanical advantage and allow postures to be maintained with relatively less muscular effort (Polk, 2002; Biewener 1989). The results of these previous studies are used here to address two anthropological questions. The first concerns the postural effects of body mass and limb proportion differences between australopithecines and members of the genus Homo. That is, H. erectus and later hominins all have larger body mass and longer legs than australopithecines, and these anatomical differences suggest that Homo probably used more extended postures and probably required relatively less muscular force to resist gravity than the smaller and shorter-limbed australopithecines. The second question investigates how animals with similar size but different limb proportions differ in locomotor performance. The effects of limb proportions on gait are relevant to inferring postural and locomotor differences between Neanderthals and modern Homo sapiens which differ in their crural indices and relative limb length. This study demonstrates that primates with relatively long limbs achieve higher walking speeds while using lower stride frequencies and lower angular excursions than shorter-limbed monkeys, and these kinematic differences may allow longer-limbed taxa to locomote more efficiently than shorter-limbed species of similar mass. Such differences may also have characterized the gait of Homo sapiens in comparison to Neanderthals, but more experimental data on humans that vary in limb proportions are necessary in order to evaluate this question more thoroughly.     

Novelties of conception in insectivorous mammals (Lipotyphla), particularly shrews

In the order Lipotyphla (Insectivora), certain reproductive features differ quite distinctly from the eutherian norms, and are of interest with regard to the evolution of mammalian gamete function and perhaps for questions of lipotyphlan phylogeny. As seen in one or more members of five lipotyphlan families (shrews, moles, hedgehogs, golden moles, tenrecs), these features can involve the configuration of the male tract including the penis, the morphology of the sperm head, the anatomy of the oviduct and the patterns of sperm transport within it, the character of the cumulus oophorus, and the way in which fertilising spermatozoa interact with the eggs. However, the picture is by no means uniform within the order. Reproductive idiosyncrasies occur variously in the different lipotyphlan families, and appear consistently and strikingly in shrews--the group studied most extensively. Compared to the patterns in most Eutheria, the most interesting anomalies in soricids include (a) the regulation of sperm transport to the site of fertilisation by oviduct crypts, whose arrangement can vary even according to species, (b) a circumscribed matrix-free cumulus oophorus that appears essential for fertilisation as the inducer of the acrosome reaction, (c) barbs on the acrosome-reacted sperm head by which it may attach to the zona pellucida. With regard to the bearing such reproductive traits might have on lipotyphlan systematics, the African mouse shrew (Myosorex varius) displays a mix of traits that characterize either crocidurine or soricine shrews, consistent with the proposal that it belongs in a more primitive tribe, Myosoricinae, or subfamily, the Crocidosoricinae, from which the crocidurine and soricine lines probably evolved. Moreover, although elephant shrews are assigned now to a separate order (Macroscelidea), they display several of the unusual reproductive features seen in lipotyphlans, particularly in chrysochlorids and tenrecs. On the other hand, if used as a phylogenetic yardstick, none of the reproductive features described serves to define the Lipotyphla as classically constituted within one order, nor necessarily all the relationships suggested by recent sequencing studies of nuclear and mitochondrial genes.     

湖北省巴东县小神农架地区川金丝猴的种群调查

The population activities of golden monkeys (Rhinopithecus roxellana) in the Xiaoshennongjia of Badong county,Hubei Province had been surveyed by consecutively tracing and grossly counting from 0ct.2000 to June 2002.The result indicated the anmount the golden monkey that iuhabit in here about 600-800 individuals.They moved clockwise in a circular track.236 golden monkeys of 2 groups had recorded by video camera during survey in Apr.2001,among them there were 59.05% adult and 40.95% of underage,the rate was 1:0.9,the sex ratio of adult was 1:1.38 (male:female).117 individuals of three different groups were recorded in random in 2002,among them were 56.41% of adult and 43.59% underage,the rate was 1:0.67,the sex ratio of adult was 1:1.2.The young were hem from the beginning the month of March.